I. Field of the Invention
The present invention refers to an improved kind of food preparation apparatus of the type comprised of a free-standing work, i.e. cooking counter or bench that can be also installed in an isolated manner, in which it is separated from any other apparatus of the same or a different kind.
It is exactly for this reason that apparatus of this kind are frequently referred to as “cooking islands” in the art.
II. Description of the Related Art
These apparatus include appliances as the ones that are generally used in luncheonettes, lunch or snack bars, self-service restaurants, and the like, where food is cooked, but more often is prepared or undergoes final treatment, or is simply stored under hot-keeping conditions on the top working surface prior to its being distributed or served out to the final customers passing by in front of the same counter. This is also why terms like “front-cooking” or “bench-top units” are commonly used in the art when referring to such apparatus.
Exactly on the ground that these apparatus are generally not the ones that are used to actual or basic cooking purposes, they have to be easily and conveniently displaceable and, therefore, they shall not be connected to any stationary fume-extractor hood arrangement.
However, the kind of food preparation operations involved or usually taking place in such apparatus does not exclude the possibility for gases, odours and fumes to be produced at and be released from the worktop of these units.
Now, in view of removing and exhausting such fumes and gases, known in the art a solution involving the use of means to not only extract the gases and fumes from the zone lying immediately above the worktop, where the food is cooked, prepared, or simply kept stored under suitable conditions waiting to be served out, but also filter such gases and fumes to eventually exhaust them again into the same ambient from which they had been extracted.
Known from WO 2006/024499 is a kind of food preparation counter that comprises means adapted to extract gases being released by and rising from the worktop of the counter, filter such gases and exhaust them again into the same ambient. However, the front casing is in this case provided with an upper horizontal strip 47 projecting towards the rear zone, whose width is not sufficient to ensure that gases/fumes being released are intercepted to any adequate extent (cf. FIGS. 5, 8 and 9 accompanying the above-cited document). In addition, such gases/fumes are filtered by a filter that is located in the lower zone or portion of the apparatus, so that it proves quite awkward and inconvenient for the filter itself to be reached in view of replacing and/or cleaning it.
Known from WO 2005/100863 is a kind of food preparation counter that is provided with a suction hood extending on the front side to extract the fumes and gases issuing from the worktop thereof, as well as means to filter the gases/fumes and to exhaust them again into the same ambient from which they have been extracted. However, this front extraction hood 28 has such height and inclination as to make it practically impossible for a customer standing in front of the counter to pick up a dish therefrom.
Furthermore, the fume extraction zone is most obviously rather high relative to the worktop, so as to allow the operator to most conveniently and readily gain access to such worktop. This circumstance, however, has the unfavourable effect of reducing the fume extraction efficiency to quite a significant extent.
Finally, even in this case the extracted fumes/gases are filtered through a filter that is arranged inside the body of the apparatus, which again makes it quite awkward and inconvenient for the filter to be reached in view of replacing or cleaning it.
Moreover, the ports through which the filtered gases are exhausted are located at the sides of the body of the apparatus, and this can be readily appreciated to represent a most likely source of inconvenience due to both greater noise being issued on the front side and the impracticableness of the same apparatus as far as the possibility for it to be approached from the sides.